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Author Masters, Roger D.

Title Fortune is a river : Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli's magnificent dream to change the course of Florentine history / Roger D. Masters.

Imprint New York : Plume, [1999], ©1998.

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe Kansas Collection J Schick  945.51 M393f 1999    ---  Lib Use Only
Description 278 pages, [8] pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
text txt rdacontent
unmediated n rdamedia
volume nc rdacarrier
Note Originally published: New York : Free Press, ©1998.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-258) and index.
Summary Few people know that Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli crossed paths when Leonardo worked - ostensibly as an engineer, possibly as a spy - in Cesare Borgia's court and Machiavelli was Florence's ambassador there. Soon thereafter, they formed a friendship and an alliance. Astonishingly, during the rich first decade of the sixteenth century, the pair joined together under the inspiration of one of Leonardo's most fantastic dreams: to build a system of canals that would make the Arno River navigable from Florence to the sea. Under Machiavelli's supervision, the Florentine government tried - and ultimately failed - to realize a portion of this plan in 1504. Roger Masters's account of the friendship between two of history's greatest geniuses starts with this tale of a magnificent lost dream and spirals outward to the art, politics, intrigue, and sexual scandals of Florence. Leonardo's preoccupation with the Arno project explains many of the tantalizing mysteries of his work. It is the reason for the startling bird's-eye view of the valley in the background of the Mona Lisa; it is part and parcel of both his obsession, in the Notebooks, with understanding the dynamics of water, and his work on canals and swamp drainage in Milan, Rome, and France. As for Machiavelli, were it not for his time spent in prison, he might never have been compelled to write The Prince. Fortune Is a River is at once a study of genius and a rich and delightful introduction to the wonders of the Renaissance.
Subject Florence (Italy) -- History -- 1421-1737.
Water diversion -- Italy -- Arno River -- History.
Diversion structures (Hydraulic engineering) -- Italy -- Arno River -- History.
Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519.
Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527.
Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519 (OCoLC)fst00033122
Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527 (OCoLC)fst00029240
Diversion structures (Hydraulic engineering) (OCoLC)fst00895709
Water diversion. (OCoLC)fst01171704
Italy -- Arno River. (OCoLC)fst01240287
Italy -- Florence. (OCoLC)fst01204699
Chronological Term 1421-1737
Genre/Form History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
ISBN 0452280907 (pbk.)
9780452280908 (pbk.)

 
    
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